THE Penang government will seek federal approval for its transport, flood mitigation and housing projects.

Newly sworn in Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said within a 100 days of the new term, the state government will negotiate with Putrajaya to get the nod to implement the ambitious multibillion ringgit Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

The master plan includes the building of LRT (light rail transit) and Penang Island Link (PIL) and the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project.

“The conditional approval application for the LRT was sent to SPAD (Land Public Transport Commission) in March 2016. We want to follow up with them so we can give priority to the project.

“The study on PIL has not been completed yet for EIA (environmental impact assessment) approval. 

“The PSR is linked to the LRT project. The PSR project is now being evaluated by the National Physical Planning Council’s technical committee. Once the report is ready, it can be tabled to the cabinet,” Chow said.

He was speaking to the media at Komtar in his first press conference as Penang chief minister. Also present was former chief minister Lim Guan Eng, who is the new finance minister in the PH federal government.

“The new finance minister will be sitting at the NPPC. We hope he can get us the due attention,” said Chow.

“We won’t be getting approvals in 100 days, but we hope to push for the work to be done in order for the project to be deliberated by NPPC.”

Asked if Penang would looking into different funding models for the master plan apart from land reclamation, Chow said the land to be reclaimed in the PSR project off the southern coast of the island would give Penang much needed land for the future development of the Bayan Lepas free industrial zone.

The PSR project that proposed to reclaim over 4,000ha of land was initially meant to finance the PTMP.

“It is not merely to finance the master plan. It is also for Penang island’s future development,” he said.

He said the state would also study and improve the delivery of state government programmes to ensure the people enjoyed the development in Penang.

 “For now, these are the three priorities. There will surely be more (to look into),” he said.

Lim was Penang’s chief minister for two terms before he was appointed finance minister in the new cabinet. – May 14, 2018.